Hereford (N.H.) and Kempton (a.w.) today

Nothing to get excited about at today´s two British meetings. As so often happens, the field has cut up badly for Hereford´ s feature race, a novice chase over an extended 3 miles at 15.10 CET, and only 3 will face the starter. Based on hurdles form, this should go to Henry Daly´s Mighty Man (Richard Johnson), one of the best staying hurdlers of recent years and now making his debut over fences. He has to jump round however, and Forest Pennant (Paul Nicholls/ Christian Wiliams), who has already won a similar event and must give him 6 lbs as a result, could be a dangerous opponent. The 2 mile handicap chase at 16.10 looks very tricky. Star Galaxy (John and Rhys Flint) was an easy CD winner last time, but that was his first win after 38 failures, so he is definitely not a cast-iron certainty. Top-weights Ursumman (Jonjo O´Neill/ Tony McCoy) and One of the Boys (Tim Vaughan/ Richard Johnson) - who unseated his rider as hot favourite last time- has obvious chances, while German-b red Wild Power (H & O Nelmes) likes this track and has been dropped to a very lenient mark.

Another German-bred on a very light weight is Mountain Forest (Hughie Morrison/ Jimmy Quinn) who runs in the 1 1/2 mile handicap for 3yo´s at 17.25 at Kempton. This step up in distance should suit the son of Tiger Hill, and his two obvious opponents on current form- Private Equity and Very Distinguished, who finished 1-2 over this CD recently- have both gone up in the ratings.